Goodbye, Hello
by Stelra Etnae
Summary: He had eternity. They didn't. (Written for Poirot Cafe themed competition #16 - Survival) Future fic, Pandora, immortal!Kaito


The figure on the bed turned his head just slightly, sharp eyes piercing into the darkness. His eyes weren't the same as they were before, but many still commented on their uncanny hawk-like gaze which had cowed many a criminal in his long years as police superintendent.

If he hadn't dedicated most of his life giving attention to the most minute of things, he might have missed the tiny change in temperature altogether, but as it was it was unmistakable to him that the window had been opened for a split second to allow access to a particular person, no matter how the perpetrator now attempted to blend into the shadows.

A few hours ago the room had been bustling, his grandchildren teeming around the bed, the small ones crawling over the covers, their parents hovering around behind. At ten the young ones were brought to their beds, and a little while later he waved his sons and daughter away as well. He loved his family, but it was no use for them to stand vigil for an old man like him. He already knew that he would die tonight, would slip away in his sleep, and there was one more person he wanted to see before he went and that person would never come if there was a single light still left on in the house.

"What is the time?" And didn't it feel odd asking that, when he had always been the most time-conscious one?

There was a pause, before that familiar voice answered, one that he hadn't heard in decades. "Eleven thirty six... and fifty-one point seven seconds." There was a catch in the other's voice, further proof of the wrongness of everything.

Saguru mustered the strength to scoff, and things almost seemed normal again. "Like hell it is. You just pulled that out of nowhere. And you're supposed to say the time in the 24 hour format."

"You've got me, Superintendent General-san." KID's smooth dulcet tone oozed from the darkness, and he could just see the thief holding his hands up in mock surrender, that trademark smirk painted across his lips.

Saguru snorted. "You finally here to turn yourself in, KID? I'm afraid I'm retired, so I would advise you to report at the station tomorrow morning instead."

Silence fell within the room, a sort of companionable camaraderie shared between two arch-rivals who had both grown tired of the game, yet also filled with an emptiness that should have been filled after decades of absence. Saguru sighed.

"Oi, Kuroba."

A single blue eye gleamed from within the shadows but for the first time no effort was made to deny the connection.

"You're a fool. Leaving like that. You broke Aoko's heart."

A sharp intake of breath, and further silence; when the other spoke his voice cracked with emotion too much to hide away. "It-"

"If you dare to say that it was for the best I'll get up from this bed and knock you out the window, Kuroba," he threatened even though both of them knew he no longer had the strength to do so.

Kaito gave a breathy laugh, the first Saguru had heard from him in decades. Oh sure, he had heard more than enough of KID's maddeningly cocky chuckle, but this was different. This was real. And he could at least admit to himself that he had missed it.

In the years that followed Kaito's abrupt disappearing act, Aoko had come to lean on Saguru more and more. Saguru's high school crush on her had never left, and in fact simply matured to a deep care for the strong yet fragile girl. He had helped her piece up the broken shards of her heart, carefully keeping his distance, not wanting to push her into something she didn't want. It had taken almost ten years, but she eventually come to love him as well, and they got married.

They had both loved each other, but there had always been that something missing, embodied in a cheeky magician with a poker face smile.

As with everything, Aoko had been more honest with the loss she had felt when her best-friend-and-something-a-little-more had just upped and disappeared, but Saguru also felt the hollowness that she described.

When Kaitou KID had returned with a spectacular bang five years later, he had been the first to the scene.

Part of Saguru wanted to tell Aoko that her best friend was still alive, because that damn thief was prancing around as energetically as ever, but could he really say for sure? He already knew that the KID that they knew was a successor to the original one; who was to say that this one wasn't another person taking up the mantle?

So he sought confirmation, and every detail that he collected made his heart leap and sink.

Kaitou KID was 174 cm tall, weighed 58 kg, was blood type 'B', had an IQ of 400. Height, figure, hair color, eye color, that stupid infuriating smirk... He had even thrown in an ice rink one heist and KID could not ice-skate to save his life (he still somehow managed to escape though, to Saguru's consternation). Everything matched the old data he had of the KID five years ago. But at the same time it was strange, how everything had stayed exactly the same. He himself had grown 6.72 centimetres from his seventeen-year-old height, filled out with muscle from the gangling frame of a teenager. When his profiling returned still reporting that the elusive phantom thief was a teenager, he felt like his hopes were dashed.

Yet his instincts, which he had trusted for so many years, insisted that the man behind the monocle was Kuroba Kaito and none other. And he knew the part of Aoko that had always suspected Kuroba of being KID thought the same, even though they never discussed it.

Both of them went to every heist, even though officially neither of them was in the Task Force; the first time KID had seen Aoko in full police uniform he almost had a heart-attack, which absolutely served him right. Then he tried to flip her skirt which almost got his head bashed in with a police baton. On principle Saguru felt that he ought to be more outraged about attempted sexual harassment on his wife, but as Aoko's spirits stayed cheery for the rest of the week he couldn't quite get himself to be angry. Stupid thief.

Aoko had passed away several years earlier, from natural causes and with a smile on her face. Saguru still missed her fieriness and passion, which had mellowed out with age but never completely went away. Because of that he didn't fear death, instead thankful that he could now join her in wherever the afterlife led them. But another part of him ached at the sight of sorrowful blue eyes. They made him want to do the impossible, to defy death, but he wasn't a magician; he was just a man.

'You're not alone,' he wanted to tell the other, but did he have any right to say it, when he himself could no longer stay?

"We both love you," he said instead, and heard Kaito's breath hitch in a quiet sob.

* * *

Hakuba Saguru passed away in his bed at 94 years of age, in the year AD 2067, Tuesday the 11th of October, zero hours, twenty-five minutes and precisely four and a half seconds.

When his family found him in the morning, no one commented on the unmistakable clover-marked monocle tucked into one wrinkled hand.

* * *

Kaitou KID sat on the rooftop of an office building in Odaiba, watching the stunning fireworks display overhead but not really seeing it. In his hand the bright jewel that had been his latest target appeared and vanished with flicks of his wrist. He held the large diamond to the sky, trying to admire how the colored lights of the fireworks refracted through its clear depths. And remembered how white moonlight had streamed through a different gem, spilling out blood red.

How would things have been different, if he had never found Pandora? Would he have stayed close to his friends? Probably he would have gotten married to Aoko, and had a couple of messy-haired kids and equally messy haired grandkids. He would have taught them sleight of hand, how to dazzle their audience and hide in plain sight, and that one piece of advice that he never forgot – always keep your poker face. He would have told her about being Kaitou KID, and she would have turned him black and blue with her mop... But would have forgiven him in the end. He would have been world-renowned magician like his father, and between performance dates and rehearsals he would have dropped by the police station and played pranks on Hakuba. He would have friends, family, love, everything he –

He took in a deep breath. _Always keep your poker face._

Caught in his thoughts, he almost didn't hear the door to the roof slam open over the burst of the fireworks finale, the flimsy steel reverberating as it impacted the wall. He blinked, looked over as the final flower of light exploded in the sky, casting shadows over a small figure hunched over panting. For a moment he saw another scene and his heart pounded, even though his mind told him it could not be; saw light glinting over large glasses, a soccer ball bouncing out readied to shoot.

When the boy lifted his head there were no glasses, no hands that snapped up to fire a surprise tranquilizer dart, and from his height and features this child physically had a few years on KID's one-time greatest critic. But those sapphire eyes that stared at him with determination and intelligence sent a jolt through the moonlight magician that he hadn't felt in years.

Poker face never revealed any of that. "You missed the fireworks, kid," he drawled, leaning audaciously against the railing, tossing the jewel from one gloved hand to the other. The boy's eyes followed the movement of the stolen item before snapping back up to KID's shadowed face. His lips tightened with resolve.

"I'm not here for the fireworks. I was looking for you, Kaitou KID!" Vocal chords still immature, the medium high pitch of a gradeschooler, but tone firm and so familiar.

"Oh? For little old me? I'm honored." He flourished a bow. "And may I know the name of such an ardent fan?"

"Kudou Hayato. A detective. And I'm going to catch you here!"

Kaito wanted to laugh. A falcon, here to capture the white dove of the night, was it? But he felt more energetic than he had in what seemed like ages.

With a flick he tossed the jewel at the boy, whose eyes widened like saucers but caught it with dexterous hands. Not bad.

He tipped his hat when the other looked up again, a split second before pink smoke obscured him from view. "I'm afraid you're going to have to be faster if you want to do that, young detective. I'd love to stay but I've got places to be, things to do. Till next time!"

When the smoke cleared he was gone as if he had never been there, a true child of the night.

But the stage had been set.

" _Catch me if you can, Tantei-kun."_


End file.
